Apart from the real habu shown in Monday's post, last Saturday night also produced a nice fake one for us. Locally known by the name "false habu", Macropisthodon r. rudis is a highly interesting snake. It mimics the real Taiwan habu (Protobothrops mucrosquamatus) not only through color and patterns, but also by morphing its oval head into a mean-looking triangle when angry or afraid. It's also mildly venomous, i. e. rear-fanged. Not lethal, mind you (although Bryan G. Fry considers M. rudis, the Mainland subspecies, the most dangerous Asian colubrid), but powerful enough to create painful swelling and dizziness.

However, not all of them are to be handled with care; different individuals show distinctive differences in disposition. Some flatten their bodies and spread their head as soon as you get close, and won't let up until you leave again, but others are positively docile and can be safely handled. Of course, it's always best to let other people do the handling, so that's what I opted for when we found this adult specimen last Saturday. It quickly became clear that it was one of the mellower individuals, and my buddy Ah-huo handled and posed it with out a hitch. M. rudis' diet is also quite peculiar: it specializes in toads, as it's one of the few snakes here that have found a way to deal with the anurans' poison glands.

Posing the dragon

Who says herping isn't an Olympic discipline?

Here's a collection of juveniles I photographed last year but haven't shown yet, so I'll take this opportunity to round out the post. I found a very young one Tuesday afternoon (M. r. rudisis cathemeral, i.e. 24/7urnal) and took it home for a later photo session, alas, yesterday morning it lay dead in his tank, for no apparent reason....

Excellent, Hans. They certainly do look viper like. Do they inject on a quick strike or do they have to chew for awhile to deliver their venom? I like your approach to handling the dangerous species! I find that to be the safest as well.

Awesome post Hans, thanks for sharing the story! I always imagined those snakes to be fatter and larger when I saw pictures in field guides. It was really cool to see them with humans for scale. Thanks Hans!

Always good stuff Hans, but being the etymology buff that you are I'm surprised you didn't enlighten us on the intriguing generic name - Macropisthodon Something about a big tooth or groove therein I'm guessing?

dear mr twoton, very nice snakes. perhaps you could provide a map and gps coordinates to the nest. i would like to study these animals in my native Germany. i will only require 200 specimens every month. we are brothers after all!

David, this species almost never snaps at humans, and when it does, it's just a little warning nip, not even an attempt to properly bite.

monklet wrote:Always good stuff Hans, but being the etymology buff that you are I'm surprised you didn't enlighten us on the intriguing generic name - Macropisthodon Something about a big tooth or groove therein I'm guessing?

I called my local snake specialist and author of many a field guide, and he believes (but is not sure) that the spreading is done by a combination of inflation and movable ribs. How does Pituophis do it?

monklet, no worries, for better educational efficiency I should really link each snake I post here to that site anyway.